We were lucky to catch up with Jesse Randall recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jesse, appreciate you joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I only recently started being able to make a full-time living from my filmmaking skills. I spent about eight years independently producing short-form content, hoping to develop these projects into features and television series. I grew up far away from the film industry in the exotic lands of rural North Carolina with a working class family. My siblings and I were the first people in our immediate family to go to college. About two years into film school in Wilmington, North Carolina, I realized I’d be swamped in student debt if I continued with my education. Everyone I knew in NC who pursued film quickly gave up on their dreams because they had to settle for jobs outside their field to pay off their student loans. I didn’t want to end up like them.

I always dreamed of either moving to New York or Los Angeles with no connections or money, the same way Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe did in Just Kids or the legend of Madonna’s early years. I decided I would get a more cultural education in New York. So, I used the remainder of my financial aid and savings and moved to New York. It was hell on earth, but I’m so glad I did it. With the current affordable housing crisis and cost-of-living crisis, I don’t know how feasible it is to succeed without a college degree or rich parents to take care of you these days. I was able to save money from working in bars and restaurants, and being a Go-Go boy at The Cock, to take classes at HB Studios that developed my skills as a screenwriter and director with the help of amazing instructors. Against all odds, I developed four short film projects that got into festivals. However, I lived in poverty the entire time I lived in New York.

I knew I’d eventually have to move to Los Angeles if I was serious about my film career. So, I made another leap without money or resources to relocate. While I was able to produce my first web series that would become my most successful project, I was even more poor in California. I lived so far below the poverty line that I got a free ride to finish my film degree at California State University, Northridge thanks to income-based grants. After acquiring over thirty licensing deals for my films, I wound up working at Lionsgate, Gamechanger Films, and the Producers Guild of America. All of my experience in the independent film world led to me becoming the Acquisitions and Film Festival Director for Echelon Studios. I’m still not as financially stable as I’d like to be during these trying times in the film industry, but I’m grateful to have a job. I know so many great people in the entertainment industry who’ve been unemployed for over a year.

I’ve gone through a bit of an existential crisis in the past year debating I made the right choice waiting so long to finish my degree, but I’m grateful that I got to produce work and develop my craft. I don’t know if I would’ve had the time to do that had I taken a more traditional route. I have lots of anxiety about starting a more professional business career in the film industry later than most people, but I have to accept that this is my journey. I’m going to grad school in the fall at CSUN to get my Masters degree in Entertainment Industry Management to expand my options, but I’m grateful I get to do that because of the route I took. Everyone’s journey is different.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a queer filmmaker/writer/producer with over thirty licensing deals for my work. I focus on dark comedies, social satires, and thrillers about LGBTQIA+ characters struggling to survive late-stage capitalism. Growing up, there were so few queer characters on television, but they were usually rich and fabulous beyond my comprehension. When I became an adult, I felt like such a loser because I didn’t see queer characters who were in my financial situation, often living below the poverty line in “fabulous” New York and Los Angeles. I wasn’t going to trendy new club openings every night, or attending chic events with the hottest people in West Hollywood. I was often working two or three jobs, usually in the service industry at nightclubs and trendy events, and still struggling to pay the rent because I pursued my film goals without a college degree. Great stories require strong conflict, and there’s no shortage of strong conflict when you’re a member of the historically marginalized LGBTQIA+ community and poor in America. It’s my goal to see entertaining stories about queer characters not only surviving but thriving in late-state capitalism, persisting despite the horrors.

While I admire fairytales, I feel like there’s enough propaganda from the media about how it’s possible for “everyone” to live the American dream, though wealth inequality in this country and across the globe continues to spiral out of control, with little acknowledgement or solutions from our elected officials (because most of them benefit from our struggle). I used to get so discouraged growing up when I would research my favorite filmmakers and see they had resources that I’ll never have. I hope my work illustrates that even though all our lives are intrinsically intertwined with capitalism by default, and no choice of our own, it’s still possible to carve an individual path for yourself and live life on your own terms.

I’m also the Acquisitions and Film Festival Director for Echelon Studios. Echelon Studios is an independent film distributor with a long history. I helped the company develop the Echelon Studios International Film Festival as a pipeline for acquisitions. While I had ten years of experience as a filmmaker in prominent film festivals such as Seriesfest and Outfest, I didn’t know where to begin when I was first hired in this position. The company also had no experience with developing film festivals either. I reached out to my career mentor, Larry Laboe, for advice. Larry is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of NewFilmmakers Los Angeles. I’m a three-time alum of NewFilmmakers Los Angeles, and Larry has been more supportive of my career than anyone I know. I got my first licensing deal for my entire body of work because of Larry. Larry offered to support the Echelon Studios International Film Festival by providing us with a venue through NFMLA’s deal with the South Park Center in downtown Los Angeles. The incredible NFMLA team has been so wonderful to work with. Francesca Escarraga, George Gomez, and Lauren Muniz have done so much for us and we’re thrilled to continue working with them as the ESIFF develops in the future.

I’m happy to have an outlet to pass along my war stories from surviving the low-budget independent film world to the filmmakers who participate in our festival. The filmmakers involved range from established veterans to first-time filmmakers. I know the frustration of paying thousands of dollars to get into film festivals and screen your film, only for your film to sit on a hard drive collecting dust. I’m so happy to help these filmmakers find homes for their work through our clients at Tubi, Amazon Prime, Plex TV, Comcast, and many more. I stumbled into film acquisitions while struggling to land a licensing deal for my work. It’s a full circle moment to assist independent filmmakers through this often complicated journey of acquisitions.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I have so many stories to tell that illustrate my resilience while surviving the battlegrounds of independent filmmaking that I’m actually making a documentary about my experiences. But the common thread in each of these stories is surviving fraud. My biggest frustration about working in the independent film world is how so many people are delusional frauds. This happens in every industry, but I think the entertainment industry has a higher potential for fraud because so many people are desperate to make a living at storytelling. Not to sound too corny, but I think there’s something inherently spiritual about storytelling. I know the entertainment industry offers the (often false) promise of fame and fortune, but I think the inherently spiritual aspect of storytelling is the ultimate draw of working in film and television. I’m certainly not perfect by any means and have my blind spots like everyone else, but I can say I’ve always been honest about my status within the entertainment industry. I’ve made some progress in my film career, but I am by no means Spielberg and nowhere close to it. My suffocating imposter syndrome has kept me grounded in that regard. All I can do is keep working towards my goals, but the only way to move up in the world is to be honest with yourself about where you currently are.

The biggest difference I noticed between working for a major studio and working in the independent film community is how easy it is to get away with being a fraud in the indie film world. The entertainment industry is a bit like the wild west in a lot of ways because it’s constantly shifting, for better or worse. It’s even wilder out there in the independent film world because there’s very little structure or chain of command. As a result, there are so many people in the indie film world faking their way through life. Not to suggest that fraud doesn’t happen in the studio system, because it certainly does, but there’s a level of professionalism lacking in the indie film world that drives me crazy. Working at a major studio or production company is such a coveted job that millions of people are competing for that you have to really prove yourself there to maintain your job. With the studio system possibly on the verge of imploding because of COVID, streaming, and (much-needed) strikes, who knows if the studio system in Hollywood will ever become stable again. AVOD and SVOD streaming platforms could make everything independent if the studio system can’t survive.

Nothing illustrates my resilience more than surpassing the countless people who tried to derail my career in the independent film world because they wanted credit for work they didn’t do, and take credit for my achievements and contributions. I’ve always continued moving forward, even when it was painful or I felt like I couldn’t get through a particular moment. While I’m grateful to have a job that uses my film skills, I’m so heartbroken at the current state of the industry. Honestly, I’m really terrified about the shift that’s happening in the entertainment industry. It’s devastating to think that so many of us who’ve dedicated our lives to our dreams might not have a future in this industry. And by dedicating our lives to our dreams, I’m not talking about becoming rich and famous. Some of us genuinely care about cinema/media so much because storytelling was our refuge. If I were pursuing a career in film because of fame and fortune, I would’ve given up by now because I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of my adult life living below the poverty line to pursue my dreams.

On my darkest days, I try to remember how many frauds I’ve survived, and how I left them in the dust while my career continued to progress because I did my homework instead of faking it with false bravado. I have the body of work and other achievements to prove it. I was validated recently when I discovered someone I worked with on a film a few years ago that burned a bridge with me is continuously name-dropping working with me in several articles about them to promote their career. They previously ignited a public social media/podcast smear campaign against me that was ultimately unsuccessful. It didn’t work because the production quality of their podcast is so terrible that you can’t even hear the audio clearly, and their claims didn’t make sense. There was also plenty of evidence to prove otherwise. I refused to engage in their social media/podcast drama because I’m not a teenager. I blocked them, never promoted the project we worked on together ever again, and never mentioned their name to advance my career because I don’t need to. However, they continuously keep mentioning my name while promoting themselves regarding working with me as one of their “achievements”. Just goes to show how fickle, fake, and desperate people can be. Seeing them mention me despite their efforts to sabotage me was such a lovely reminder of how focusing on the work instead of being a fraud pays off.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I think all of us will have to reckon with unlearning and unconditioning ourselves from the sociopathic ideology of capitalism at some point in our lives. Capitalism kills. Period. If you don’t believe me, look at the rising number of unhoused residents sleeping on the streets while the lack of affordable housing deteriorates across the country, with no solution in sight because most our elected officials are bought off by real estate developers and corporations who benefit from this tragedy. I’ve spent an unreasonable amount of time in my life dealing with the shame of living in poverty because I pursued my dreams of becoming a filmmaker.

A film moment I think about a lot is in The Muppet Movie, when the gang is headed to Hollywood and their car breaks down. They think their chance of pursuing their dreams is over because they’re going to miss their big audition to become stars and “make millions of people happy”. Kermit has a heart-to-heart with his internal self and ponders if it was worth it, feeling guilt that he disappointed everyone around him because they didn’t make it to Hollywood. His conscious reminds him that everyone tagged along because they believed in the dream. He finally admits he’s most disappointed that he broke the promise he made to himself to make something of his life instead of sitting in the swamp. He makes peace with himself, realizing he would’ve been even more disappointed if he hadn’t left the swamp. At least he had the courage to go out there in the world instead of living with regret.

Who knows what will happen to all of us in the entertainment industry as we face AI, corporate greed, and late-stage capitalism consuming our world. If it all ends tomorrow, at least we can say we pursued our dreams because we love what we do, not because we made millions of dollars and became greedy billionaires. That’s never why I pursued this. If we spend our lives determining our success based on the revenue generated from our art instead of the satisfaction of being a creator, we are doomed. It took me way too long to realize that I was brainwashed by capitalism, and I hope to raise awareness that life is worth more than the net profit. People’s lives matter more than profits, and I strive to continue creating projects that remind people of this message.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jrvisionfilms.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jrvisionfilms/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesse-randall-b81b7018/